Sports Illustrated has axed all of its current employees, with some being terminated immediately, after the Authentic Brands Group terminated its agreement with The Arena Group to publish the magazine in print and digital. The Arena Group missed a $2.8m payment that breached the company’s Sports Illustrated licensing deal three weeks ago. It is unclear whether Authentic will establish a new operator or allow Arena to renegotiate its current deal. The decision comes five years after the licensing group bought Sports Illustrated for $110m from Meredith.
The Sports Illustrated Union is calling upon Authentic to “ensure the continued publication of SI”, and in a statement following the announcement noted, “We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue,” said Mitch Goldich, the SI NFL editor and unit chair of the union. Employees with a last working day of Friday will be contacted by the company’s HR team soon.
“We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue,” Mitch Goldich, the SI NFL editor and unit chair of the union, wrote.
Sports media figures criticized the decision on social media, with Rachel Nichols tweeting, “Very sad for my Sports Illustrated friends today, and for all of us who loved everything it used to be.” ESPN’s Kevin Clark added, “A Sports Illustrated cover was, for decades, the number one starmaking vehicle in sports. It was what Carson was for a comedian or SNL was for a band. Sports is worse off without those things.”
In November, the magazine faced criticism when it scrubbed its site of AI-generated content that included bylines and photos of fake authors. Just weeks after that, The Arena Group fired its CEO Ross Levinsohn, who had served in the role since 2020. In December, a spokesperson for Manoj Bhargava, the founder of caffeine brand 5-Hour Energy and a majority investor in The Arena Group, who joined the company as chairman interim CEO, told The Post that Levinsohn’s firing had nothing to do with the AI debacle in November.
It is not yet clear whether this decision will result in the end of the publication, but the Sports Illustrated Union is clearly calling for action. The termination of the agreement between The Arena Group and Authentic Brands Group may result in a new operator being established or it may be given the opportunity to negotiate a new deal. The decision to terminate all current employees will cause considerable disappointment and concern amongst those who have been affected, not just in terms of their individual career prospects, but as a worrying indicator of the future of the publication itself.
